1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminated material useful for preventing ship fire caused by spouting of fuel oil or the like, and a method of preventing fire due to spouting of fuel oil or the like by using the laminated material.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, ship fires have occurred frequently, and in the past thirteen years from 1980 to 1992, 73 ships experienced fires in the engine rooms (small fires and fires which were not reported due to sinking of ships are excluded).
The primary cause of the engine room fires was spouting of fuel oil or lubricant oil from a fuel oil piping device or a lubricant oil piping device. In detail, one of fuel oil piping devices or lubricant oil piping devices connected to a main engine and an auxiliary engine for a generator (hereinafter simply referred to as "auxiliary engine") got loose, generated cracks, or got out of place by vibrations of engines to cause spouting of oils. The spouted oil contacted a surface having a high temperature, such as an exhaust pipe and a pipe of a turbo charger to catch fire. About 60% of the engine room fires were caused by the above-mentioned oil spouting.
Spouting of fuel oil from fuel oil piping devices connected to a main engine is caused, for example, by breakage of fastening bolts for securing an inlet flange of a fuel oil supply pipe to a fuel injection pump, coming off a drain valve connected to the fuel oil supply pipe, breakage of an air vent pipe connected to the fuel oil supply pipe, breakage of a cock connected to a fuel oil return pipe, breakage of a short vinyl hose coupled to the fuel oil return pipe, and cracking of a welded potion of a connector for the fuel oil supply pipe. Spouting of fuel oil from fuel oil piping devices connected to an auxiliary engine is caused, for example, by breakage of a cooling oil pipe for a fuel valve, looseness of a fuel oil supply pipe, breakage of a pressure measurement pipe connected to the fuel oil supply pipe, breakage of a pipe connected to a differential pressure gauge of a fuel oil filter due to explosion of an intake pipe, and looseness of a connector for a fuel injection pump.
In view of the foregoing, a world-wide study has started to develop means for preventing oil from spouting out of fuel oil piping devices or lubricant oil piping devices connected to a main engine or an auxiliary engine.
On approach proposed is to make high-pressure pipes for a high-pressure fuel pump, a fuel injection valve and the like double structured. However, since replacing the high pressure pipes in the existing ships with the proposed double pipes would incur large costs, it is practically unrealistic to use the double pipe in all ships.
It was also considered to use a cover devised by the inventors of the present invention for preventing the leaking of oil (Japanese Utility Model Application No. 2-93077). According to the device, a cover is provided with a fastener for facilitating the attachment of the cover to the existing piping devices. However, the cover is not satisfactory because of its size. It is too large to cover the above-described portions from which oils spout. The spouting portions are generally very small, and spouting sometimes occurs at locations at which pipes are screwed to walls. Although covers of reduced size may be manufactured, they involve difficulties in the attachment of small fasteners to them, which results in increased costs. In addition, the conventional covers have the drawback that they are in danger of being broken when they are subjected to spouting pressure of fuel oil, which is as high as a few tens kg/cm.sup.2.
Covering the above-described spouting portions by winding them up with a resinous adhesive tape is another idea. However, resinous adhesive tapes are accompanied by shortcomings of being torn due to high spouting pressure of fuel oil. When an adhesive cloth tape is used for covering the spouting portions by winding them up, another problem arises that a spray of fuel oil spouting through the texture of the cloth cannot be prevented. Namely, it is difficult to obtain a sufficient sealing property. In the case where the spreading portions have a complicated shape, it is impossible to wrap up such portions by a resinous adhesive tape or an adhesive cloth tape.